Stabilizers

One of my heuristics—the mental shortcuts that I use to make decisions about things—is to generally aim for outcomes that will result in the greatest range of freedoms in the future.

In theory at least, this stance should allow me to keep growing in whatever direction makes sense to the future version of myself, as opposed to overfitting (over-optimizing) for a specific outcome that’s meaningful to me today, but which might not be meaningful to future-Colin: a person who knows and has lived through different things, who may therefore have entirely different priorities, and who might feel constrained by those well-intentioned investments.

This doesn’t mean not aiming for concrete goals or making locked-in plans, it just means that as such plans are made, resiliency and flexibility are a focus, as opposed to orienting toward stiff, fixed outcomes that are less likely to be adaptable as my circumstances evolve.